On Friday, a day after the announcement of the Class XII exam results, the 104 health helpline continued to receive a large number of calls. The helpline which got 5,955 calls on Thursday received nearly 2,500 on Friday. “On Thursday morning, many of the calls we received were general inquiries about how and where to access the results, but once the results were announced, we began getting calls from students who were upset,” said B. Prabhudoss, head of marketing and hospital relations, GVK EMRI, which runs the helpline. Last year, the helpline received about 2,200 calls.
Suicide prevention centre Sneha received 18 calls on Friday, in addition to over 15 distress calls on Thursday. “One of the calls we received on Thursday was from a child who had failed. Fortunately, we managed to convince her not to do anything extreme,” said Lakshmi Vijayakumar, founder of the helpline.
“Many parents too called and asked us how to support their children. It is a good sign,” she said.
For help, students and parents can contact 104 or Sneha at 2464 0050 round the clock.
Meanwhile, Chennai Corporation, through its associate Centre for Science of Learning, has been sending bulk texts to thousands of students. According to a senior Corporation official, CSL is sending messages with a helpline number for the students (9840811741 and 9566155590).
About 25 counsellors are ready for the 32 HSS run by Corporation, to inform students of the options they have. Uma Mahesh of CSL said the counselling as well as the SMSs are tailored for different students. CSL has analysed that 35.8% of students will be eligible for the top 100 engineering colleges. The ranking of the colleges is based on cut-off marks .
Both the 104 health helpline and Sneha’s suicide prevention number received a large number of calls a day after the results
